Academy enjoy Portugal trip

Nottingham Forest's Under 21 and Under 18 sides have recently returned from a successful pre-season trip to Portugal.

Jack Lester's Under 21s and Gareth Holmes' Under 18s made the journey to Porto for their annual pre-season tour with both sides playing two matches against local opposition.

Academy manager Gary Brazil has been delighted by the progress made by the club's young players and recognises that there is a real pathway through to the first team under Philippe Montanier.

He said: "We thoroughly enjoyed the pre-season trip to Portugal. We worked the players hard in the hotter conditions and we had some good games against strong opposition which is always pleasing.

"It was important that we improved the players' fitness and got the new boys acquainted and it was great the club backed us and allowed us to organise another successful trip out here.

"We had a good number of staff out here, played on some great pitches and the results were more than satisfactory with the Under 18s winning both games and the Under 21s winning one of their two matches.

"We were delighted to see that back home Philippe was giving a number of young players some game time in the first team. It is everything an academy manager would want when the head coach is taking the time to assess younger players.

"The exposure to training and playing with senior professionals will only help them grow and become better players."

Under 21s

Won 5-4 vs Rio Ave

Lost 3-1 vs FC Porto

Under 18s

Won 4-0 vs Gil Vicente

Won 3-0 vs SC Braga

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